If our new CEO really wanted to do something meaningful he could start by tidying up age group selections and get us more games. We had a nice July tour for a couple of the age groups which Singo managed to get us uninvited from for a host of dismissable offenses. ZC have to get rid of this guy, he’s done untold damage over the years. The sheer skullduggery that goes on is outrageous. With so few decent players dotted across the age groups it’s surely doubly important that the best players are picked.
Flakeman is complaining about Robinson but the stand out questionable pick is Makoni Jr. This is a high profile competition and this stinks. There are no repercussions for the culprits, in fact they keep getting the job. There’s a nasty little rumour of a couple of Vic Falls trips thrown in as well that is worth an investigation.
I once watched an assessment of an U19 side at the CFX facility many years ago. There were three well known coaches and 2 ZC ones. They had to watch the players bat, bowl and field. There was a list of criteria that they had to assess from 1-10. It had to be done independently with no discussion between them. I saw the results- the three well respected guys’ results were almost identical and the other two blokes were so far off the money you just had to shake your head in disbelief. We have to deal with the two muppets to this day. It’s unbelievable.
in fairness, this U19 batch have got more exposure, tours, matches, etc than the last decade put together. A lot of credit is due to ZC and Mangongo for the amount of cricket that they have played. However, it seems that the results in the forthcoming U19 World Cup will not be any better than normal. That doesn't mean that the programme wasn't a great idea. It does mean that you can't polish a turd...
in fairness, this U19 batch have got more exposure, tours, matches, etc than the last decade put together. A lot of credit is due to ZC and Mangongo for the amount of cricket that they have played. However, it seems that the results in the forthcoming U19 World Cup will not be any better than normal. That doesn't mean that the programme wasn't a great idea. It does mean that you can't polish a turd...
I’m not disputing that Eugene. Steve Mangongo has done a great job organizing a lot of stuff for these players, and would appear to have been the only guy capable of motivating the ZC to do so. I’m just saying that as per normal some of the selections stink. I’m also saying that you can’t hope that one year of intense preparation at the end of their school careers can bring guys up to international standard. The work has to commence basically at junior level. It’s not entirely up to ZC, parents and schools have to play the major role, but ZC have to identify the real talented guys and make sure they have tours to go on and to get them into regular clinics where they get quality coaching. For the number of schoolboy players we have we actually have more talent than anyone, we just don’t do anything with it. One year at the end, whilst it’s a start and an admirable effort by Mangongo, just isn’t enough. I’ve seen a number of junior players in the last ten years that are comparable to the best juniors from other countries, but they don’t get enough specialized coaching nor the exposure to enough competitive games.
The easiest pathway to becoming a good cricketer is if you come from a cricketing family. This is our biggest problem- we have a mere handful of devoted dads with the knowledge and the desire (that’s the sad part) to get their kids to do the hard yards. Of course much of that stems from our senior cricket having been in the doldrums for many years and the reasons for that that we’ve discussed many times. In recent times a handful of parents created Zim Pups (since fallen by the wayside thanks to Singo) and that was a great thing and produced some quality players. We need another batch of parents like that, but it seems unlikely. Recently Howzat Academy toured Dubai (2 games rained off!! What are the odds??), so maybe there is a bit of hope. At high school level there’s perhaps two or three talented young batsmen in the entire country that practice at least three times a week with proper coaches, that’s a disastrous state of affairs. They don’t even practice together, where they could feed off each other. We really have lost that all important culture that is so vital.
Not only developing the game in school & universities, but transisition phase from Under 19 to A team /National team also needs to be smooth and performing players must be rewarded to next level, which we saw with Shumba and Roche, more under 19 performers needs to be groomed with franchise cricket.
Signing Ed Byrom was not a great step done by Rising Stars, as he is more interested in representing England then Zimbabwe, however addition of Murray was great step, only those youths should be added who wants to represent Zimbabwe.
In last 10 years, Under 19 Cricket in Zimbabwe has been migration of the talents to other nation or leaving the game due to studies, pursuing differant careers, only handfull of them managed to stick with the game
Oh the other talented player that was overlooked in U19 was Muyeye from Peter House. He really is a talented hitter and has some technique and is a tremendous athlete. How some of those players were selected ahead of him is an injustice. At that St Johns T20 festival he won best bat, I think he scored 3 hundreds in 6 innings, some unbelievable ball striking. What happens with our younger players is that when they face a good bowling attack they have no idea how to score a run off decent bowling, their ability to stoutly defend, then work the ball, then take full advantage of the odd poor delivery is poor. You need a lot of competitive games to learn this, and our environment doesn’t provide it. A way around it is to play up but schools don’t like to do that because you get bitching moaning mummies whose crap kid might lose his spot in the side, or other parents moaning why their ordinary kid is not being given the same opportunity. Myers and Shardendorf were allowed to play up and they’ve become decent prospects. I know I sound like a stuck record, but good youngsters need to play Club cricket and they don’t. The main reason is that they’re just not that interested. Cricket is a tough game and they need to see there’s a future and they need to aspire to being like an international player. As far as the white kids go there’s no longer a white club that will get them involved and they probably don’t like the idea of approaching a black club, but that situation might hopefully change a bit. Hammy played a few times with Byrom and Welch for Country Club, and look how good those young men are now. In the third term next year we might see 2-3 more move up, but we’re talking of only a couple of youngsters, it’s not many. And of course they end up being so much better than kids their age. Then they think they’re stars and when they tour they come down to earth with a bump. I find the whole thing really vexing. There’s no doubt the school standard has plummeted in the last three years and I seem to be the only person that is wringing his hands in dismay. It’s critical for our u19’s and national side to put in some good performances and for ZC and the schools and the parents to really crank it up now. Much actually depends on an economic revival of sorts, and that’s not impossible either.
Signing Byrom was the best thing they’ve done. With our shortage of good players the one thing ZC needs to ensure is that guys playing cricket overseas know that the door is always open. Whilst I sympathize with guys slogging it out here, or simply because they don’t have the ability/opportunity to move, we need the best players available to us. With respect, there are a lot of very ordinary franchise players that simply wouldn’t be there in ordinary circumstances. I’m not suggesting Byrom is coming home, he’s got a beautiful route mapped out for him in England and he will pursue it. Why wouldn’t Zim want Byrom back after he’d played County for a few years? We got Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin back and those two guys made all the difference. What makes you think we play cricket at our many universities?
You seem to like copy and paste.
One big score amidst plenty of famine(by the un-ordinary Byrom) then an extended paid holiday because you cut the cut the calendar short or postponed it to when he's absent.
I agree, it was the best thing competent Hasnain approved!
Signing Byrom is like adding some "star " value to the domestic cricket, in reality he snatched a place of an under 19 player who would be representing Zimbabwe U19 in World Cup. Byrom or Welch has got least chance of return.Rising Stars and other franchises should have given experience to all those 15 under 19 selected players in each Rounds taking 2 of them in each matches.
Giving Byrom an opportunity, does'nt help Zimbabwe, as domestic cricket is mainly for those talents who are going to represent nation. Ryan Murray was a good choice as he can represent Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Under 19 has less opportunity in playing under 19s of top teams, it was better to include them in domestic games, which the top teams generally do. Zimbabwe Under 19 performance says enough, there is a huge differance between them and under 19s of top teams. Coach could'nt do anything, the failure fully lues on ZC.
